A British crime fiction author thinks Jane Austen died of arsenic poisoning. But whether it was murder remains the million dollar question.

Did Jane Austen die of arsenic poisoning? All clues seem to suggest she did, says British crime writer Lindsay Ashford.

But what isn’t as clear is whether she was purposely murdered or not. “Although that seems improbable, it’s not impossible, Ashford said Wednesday.

Ashford became fascinated with all things Austen when three years ago she and her partner moved to Chawtown — a place Ashford describes as the “quintessential English village.”

Once there, she spent days working in the library of Chawtown House — where volumes of Austen’s letters were housed in the home of the author’s brother Edward.

Her plan had been to write another urban gritty crime novel, her specialty. But instead she soon found herself engrossed in Austen’s letters. In one of the letters Austen wrote: “I am considerably better now and am recovering my looks a little, which have been bad enough, black and white and every colour.”

The phrase “black and white and every colour” stopped Ashford in her tracks. As a crime writer, she has researched various methods of poisoning and to her it sounded like Austen had been suffering from arsenic poisoning.

“One of the long-term chronic effects of arsenic poisoning is you get a rain drop effect,” she explained. “Some patches of skin go very white. Others go very dark brown or black.

“At the time, I thought that’s crazy and I dismissed it.”

But then the former president of the Jane Austen Society of North America visited the library and estate. She told Ashford that she knew the original couple who had bought a lock of Jane Austen’s hair at a Sotheby’s auction in 1948, the 52-year-old crime writer recounts.

The couple, who have since died, told her they had had the lock of hair tested and the results found there was evidence of arsenic in her hair. The lock of hair now sits in the Jane Austen museum.

When Ashford heard the story, she abandoned her plans to write a modern day crime fiction novel and chose to use the mystery around Jane Austen’s death as the setting for her newest novel — The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen, which was released in England earlier this fall.

Her book about Austen’s death revolves around Austen’s best friend Anne Sharpe, who lived well into the middle of the 19th century. Ashford’s premise is Sharpe would have seen the newspaper stories about arsenic deaths at the time, triggering questions in her mind about Austen’s death. .

Ashford follows the character Sharpe as she tries to figure out how Austen died and if someone killed her.

Austen was probably given arsenic in medication to treat another illness, Ashford said.

More than likely Austen was given a potion called Fowler’s Solution, which contained arsenic. It was believed to cure everything from rheumatism to syphilis.

Austen mentioned in her letters that she suffered from rheumatism, Ashford said. “One possibility is that she had a disease that wouldn’t have killed her, or might not have, but the medicine she was given did kill her.”

Still, the possibility of Austen being murdered intrigues Ashford. “In the early 19th century many people did use arsenic as a murder weapon because you can’t detect it,” she explained. “It could be put in food without anyone realizing it. And in fact if someone was poisoned with arsenic there was no way of proving it until 1836 — that was well after her death.”

“I would say you can’t rule out murder. It is possible. But I would say it’s more likely it was the medicine she was given.”